Hopscotch!
by Angel Starbeam
Summary: It's 2005, and Danny Thatcher is staying with his relatives, some he doesn't like, other he does like and others he hasn't met yet on account that they'd been dead for a while. It's not a good summary but please read and review.
1. Danny, Jackson and Emma

Title: Danny, Jackson and Emma

Author: Angel Starbeam

Word Count: 905

Disclaimer: I do not own rights to _Corpse Bride_. I'm just a fan with an overactive imagination and no money.

The house was tall and majestic despite its dilapidated state. The mist surrounding it made the ground glow and the moon cast shadows, particularly ones of skeletons. Tall and white, long and elongated, they barley seem human, quite strange due to their origins.

It was also strange that they were so gleeful.

Then a large black blot appeared on the page.

"Christ," a fountain pen quickly scratched the ink creating a range of lines.

A slender hand ran through raven locks and coal black eyes narrowed in merged concentration and frustration. The fifteen-year-old boy attached to these, sighed as he tried to correct his mistake.

"DANIEL!"

He then stopped, recognizing the shrill and loud voice that was summoning him.

_They're here already? _

The bedroom door opened and a woman with a motherly face and red hair streaked with grey entered.

"Danny, you better come downstairs," her face was showed sympathy.

Danny groaned and put down his sketchpad. Resigned to his fate, he followed the head maid, Mrs. Hilde, out and downstairs to the main parlor.

Deemed the main parlor because it was closest to the entrance hall and it was slight larger than the other rooms. The floor was polished wood, with its walls painted a pale yet sunny yellow. It was quite a cheerful room, while its occupants were not at the moment. Danny first saw two others, another young man and a young girl around his age sat on the floral print comfortable couch. They were not comfortable but because of the couch but of because the elder people standing before them.

These were their aunt and uncle, about two positions removed. Maybe third or forth cousins would be a more appropriate title but since they were much older, they prefer the titles suggesting seniority. Sitting on the singles stuffed chairs were the two great aunts. Danny affectionately called them "aunties," because they were kind and sane to them. Unfortunately, they believed that this was for the children's own good. They still loved them.

"Here he is," Auntie Alison smiled and her hand directed him to sit next to his cousins.

Danny obeyed and next to Jackson, and Emma, his other cousin smiled. It was an executioner face-off.

It was a stark contrast between the adults and them. Aunt Beatrice (called Aunt Bea because she hates it) was imposing, with her ghostly skin and dark eyes perpetually in disapproval. Uncle Fergus (Fergie), a short, fat balding man, hardly a fault, but he was a jerk. They were siblings that lived close together so to monitor one another concerning the Will. It had been that way since Fergie's wife went to "holidaying" in Venice and Bea's former husband found a more feminine life companion, a landscapist named Howard.

On the other hand, Danny and Jackson were second cousins. Both were a few inches close to six feet, their faces were handsome and their eyes were wide and expressive. Danny's black hair was straight and thick and tended to go over his eyes, which he did little to correct. Jackson was with light mahogany hair, wavy and uncombed with striking hazel eyes framed by his glasses. Emma, another second cousin, was a blend of dark and light, dark brown hair, amber eyes, and so short that she could see eye-to-eye with Uncle Fergie.

Danny often thought about their relation to them as well some other relatives. He did not know much about his family history, his father did not bother with teaching him as he did with literature.

He did though, tell Danny that one branch of the family was of noble blood and old money while the other branch was the nouveaux rich, and joined by marriage by the Everglots (old money) and the Van Dorts (new money). This was because the Everglots were broke while the Van Dorts were rich by their fish-mongering business, now a still-going-strong corporation (renamed it Norshire Lake Co. before the First World War, then Norshire Lake Corp. during the nineteen-forties).

None the cousins, part of the latest generations, shared the name of Everglot or Van Dort. Danny was a Thatcher (his grandfather was an ordinary man who married his grandmother Nancy, they met while in university in London, England), Jackson was Van Buren (his great-grandfather was an employee of the company and wedded a Miss Eleanor Van Dort) and Emma was a Farrow (her father Benjamin married her mother Wilhelma Van Dort). The only one who actually was close to the town of Norshire (The Everglots and Van Dorts home), was Emma, who lived in the next town of Bedlam. Jackson's family lived in Manchester while Danny resided an ocean away, in the United States. The distance away was probably a reason why the children and their own parents came out normal.

But the children were not in Bedlam, Manchester or the United States. They were in Norshire, with their relatives, the snobs and socialite elite, hounding them down. There was only one good thing about this; it was only Uncle Fergie and Aunt Bea at the moment. It could be worse, like Aunt Bernice (Aunt Burns) was close to hundred pounds with fat cheeks covered blush and was usually dressed in the lasted fashion. No one told her that the fashion designed was for hundred and ten pound women did not suit her. Danny was not sure who more at fault was: Aunt Burns for her oblivious nature and vanity or the culture that cannot comprehend plus sizes and health and value women who never eat.

"Children, last night's performance was a disaster." Aunt Bea's eyes narrowed.

"Good morning to you," Danny flatly replied. The retort earned him two glares of death, so he added, "What did we do now?"

"I received a report of your behavior."

The list began.

"First…"

A.N: This is a rewritten chapter


	2. Ravens From Inkblots

Title: Hopscotch!

Author: Angel Starbeam

Word Count:

Disclaimer: I do not own rights to _Corpse Bride_. I'm just a fan with an overactive imagination and no money.

Chapter 2: Ravens from Ink Blots

A raven flew above the mysteriously powerful house and the dancing skeletons. It was an odd creature; it hung in midair, with no particular direction in mind and was lopsided in body as well as fat with misplaced yet graceful wings. Its appearance took attention away from the house and skeletons, but Danny decided that he liked the raven that he made in haste from the ink blot before it bled though the paper.

"Bloody harpy."

Danny looked up from his sketch pad to the sullen commenter. Jackson slumped in the tattered armchair he sat in.

The old cellar where they were in was a storage room; a place filled broken furniture, ancient scrapbooks, and other things that have gone into retirement from being seen in the house. Because the cellar was a place of exile, few people bothered with it. Maids only came there for maybe once a year to clear the excess dust and maybe throw in the latest retiree, and an exterminator would come to check on his traps. Other than that, it was a room empty of living occupants, filled with rejected nonliving ones.

Yet because no one else bothered with it, it served as a hiding place for three downtrodden adolescents.

Enduring through a lecture of what their stations in society require of them and what others expected of them was not what a group of teenagers wanted to spend a summer afternoon. Being told the list of the inappropriate behavior that has been done was also not wanted. It was not wanted, but the three did just that; listening to the snobby drawl of Fergie and condemned brogue of Bea.

After which, they took sanctuary in the cellar, sitting in a semi-circle among the frayed furniture.

"I'm sure they think they doing what they think is best for us," Emma said demurely, sitting up from the hope chest.

The boys looked at their cousin with mutual expressions of _Yeah right_.

"I meant Auntie Alison and Edwina," Emma clarified, her arms folded.

"You have to admit, this is bordering cruel and unusual," Danny pointed out.

"Danny, we lied to them," Emma said, her tone softened. Emma did not like lying, especially to the aunties. Plus, she is a terrible liar.

"Then next time tell the truth and leave me to be hanged." Jackson got up from the chair and crossed over to Danny's side of the room.

"I agree," Danny turned to him, "Next time Jackson, we're selling you out."

Jackson scowled, Danny smiled.

"Why do you feel the need to start betting pools?" Emma asked.

"I don't need to. I just want to see if I'm right or not." Jackson replied.

"And now we have to go to dinner with Fergie and Bea and whatever lobotomized socialite." Danny groused.

Going to dinner with high classed Norshire snobs, another unwanted activity but they were going to do it. it was their own fault.

Last night, they were at a pub. The place was well liked and respectable, and quite law abiding. Although, some would say it had one fault; it was a place to gamble. A place where people made bets; Ones as conventional as outcomes of sporting events to if the boss's hair was actually a toupee and if it was, how much did it cost him.

Jackson was an excellent gambler in the later category. He had an interesting talent of human observation and correctly predicting their next actions. He gambled on account he wanted to see if he was correct or not. On one particular betting pool, he was not correct. He didn't mind it, it was ten pence lost and he instantly saw his flaw in judgment.

A lad five years his senior, a hundred pounds heavier, and had a large amount of alcohol in his system, saw that since he sided on Jackson's predictions, it was Jackson's fault that he lost. Jackson knew it was not his fault the silly git lost money. He also knew that the git would sock his jaw regardless.

Danny was the one to save the day. He was able to give the git compensation for his losses in the form of two DVDs of _Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex_. The gleeful git left happy and Jackson and Danny relieved.

Unfortunately, word of the incident got out and reached the ears to their family, namely Auntie Alison and Auntie Edwina. They did not please them. Not only was Jackson gambling, a habit they abhorred, but Danny and Emma lied to them about it when they returned home. So when Aunt Bea and Uncle Fergie came along with full intent in addressing the issue, the aunties let them come and talk to the children. And when the "invitation" for the dinner came up, the Aunties made no objections. That was their punishment.

"You still owe me Disc 1 and 2."

A.N. What do you think? The cousins will have more to do. The story might drag on.


	3. Help

Hi, this is the author's note or more accurately a desperate plea for help.

Anyway, two years ago, I started this fic and never updated after two chapters. I will confess, it is because I had no idea where it was going; it didn't even have a real plotline. But the characters, especially the ones I made up (Danny, Jackson and Emma) were kept in the back of mind. They want out.

I have to revamp the whole fic, give it a new beginning and everything. And I need help. If anyone wat to be the alpha/beta this, let me know. Please.


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